For Want of a Shutdown Inning

This is one of the rare losses in this stretch that has more to do with ineffective pitching than with offensive shortcomings. It was a very strange outing for Jeremy Bonderman. His final line certainly didn’t look good, but before and in between the home runs he made some really good pitches. The offense got handcuffed by Mark Buehrle, but the Tigers definitely showed some fight in the later innings. They didn’t look overmatched, and the home run power finally showed up a bit (Ryan Raburn continues to have some good at-bats, and Brandon Inge finally homered for the first time since May). However, every time they scored, the White Sox would come right back in the bottom half of the inning and built their lead right back up to four, whether it was against Bonderman or Bonine. I would also like to briefly mention that Carlos Guillen hit the ball hard three times but only got one hit out of it, and Jhonny Peralta had some really good at-bats in the game but wasn’t rewarded for it (although he drew a key walk that set up Cabrera’s RBI single).

The series continues tonight with Rick Porcello and Edwin Jackson going up against each other. To say that Porcello has struggled against the White Sox is an understatement. They are his kryptonite. He has never made a good start against them (Even Armando Galarraga has managed to beat the Twins once). He can’t psych himself out. Meanwhile, Edwin Jackson has already beaten the Tigers twice this year, and he pitched well against the Orioles in his last start. The Tigers will have Guillen in their lineup this time, whom they did not have last time they faced Jackson, and Guillen is batting .400 with two doubles against his former teammate.